Posted on Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Sacred Heart Breaks Ground on New Hospital in Port. St. Joe
Sacred Heart Health System will hold a groundbreaking ceremony on June 21 to officially launch construction of a 25-bed community hospital and medical office building in Port St. Joe that will serve Gulf and Franklin counties.
The project will begin with preparing a 27-acre site along Highway 98 near Gulf Coast Community College. The site development and subsequent construction will take more than a year, with the hospital projected to open in January 2009.
“We are pleased to break ground on a hospital that will meet critical health care needs of residents in Port St. Joe and the surrounding communities of Gulf County and Franklin County,” said Patrick J. Madden, president and CEO of Sacred Heart Health System in Pensacola. “Gulf County has no hospital and we know the community is eager to have better access to emergency services, imaging services and surgical services.”
Sacred Heart estimates its cost for designing, building and equipping the hospital will be approximately $30 million. The project includes:
• A community hospital with 25 private rooms, an emergency department, an intensive care unit, and two operating rooms.
• An urgent care clinic to treat minor injuries and illnesses
• Laboratory services
• Diagnostic imaging services such as CT scans, x-ray, ultrasound and mammography
• A Medical Office Building to provide offices for 10 physicians
• A helipad to be used by Sacred Heart’s AirHeart helicopter, providing rapid transport for trauma patients and other critically ill patients to a Trauma Center.
• Roads, delivery areas and paved parking areas for approximately 370 vehicles.
“We are thankful for the community’s support and for the donations made by The St. Joe Company, which donated land for the project,” Madden said. “It takes an entire community to do this kind of project, and we’ve had great support from city and county officials, and private donors who understand the vital need for this hospital.”
Gulf County residents are providing crucial support through a half-cent sales tax that will be used to underwrite care to the poor provided by the hospital.
In addition to new health care services, the hospital and medical office building will mean an economic boost for the area by providing jobs for an estimated 150 people.
For Sacred Heart Health System, the start of work on the hospital in Port St. Joe is a continuation of a regional expansion that includes the opening of a new hospital in Walton County in 2003. The hospital in Walton County also was supported by a land donation from The St. Joe Company.
Sacred Heart has expanded its air ambulance service into rural areas of Northwest Florida over the past six years. The AirHeart helicopter service provides emergency transport services from bases in Walton County and Marianna. Sacred Heart also opened a radiology clinic in Port St. Joe earlier this year and provides physician services in Panama City Beach.
For more information about making donations to the hospital and donor recognition opportunities, please contact Dr. Henry Roberts at the Sacred Heart Foundation, 850-416-4105.
About Sacred Heart Health System
Sacred Heart Health System, based in Pensacola, has established itself as the most preferred hospital in Northwest Florida and the region’s leader in providing high quality health care to children and adults. Key services include a 458-bed hospital in Pensacola, a Regional Heart and Vascular Institute, Children’s and Women’s Hospital, a Level II Trauma Center, Cancer Center, a home health agency, a 120-bed nursing home and a large regional network of primary care and specialty doctors stretching from Foley, Ala. to Panama City Beach, Fla. In 2003, the Health System also added Sacred Heart Hospital on the Emerald Coast, a 50-bed community hospital in Walton County, east of Destin. Sacred Heart was founded by the Daughters of Charity in 1915 and is part of Ascension Health, the nation’s largest system of not-for-profit health care facilities. For more information, call 850-416-7000 or visit online at www.sacred-heart.org.Labels: Construction, Expansion, Gulf County, New Hospital, Port St. Joe
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